General Question

Was it overexertion, dehydration or both (exercise question)

I went for a 35 minute run, yesterday. First time that I have worked out like that in a long time. When I was done, I could barely form enough saliva to spit and my mouth was extremely dry, it was hard to shallow. I didn’t drink water until I got home. Like an idiot, I drank two cups of coffee at 8 in the p.m. Four hours later, I get a splitting headache. Worse headache that I have ever had. I take some Ibuprofen and go to bed at 10. Headache goes away after an hour, but, then there was nausea and vomiting.

What happened? Did I overdo it with the exercise right away or was I dehydrated?

To stop it from happening in the future drink lots of water as a general rule and ease into the exercise. I can’t drink a lot of water just before or after without feeling it in my stomach, if you’re the same you just have to load up over time.

The coffee just added to your dehydration and probably caused the nausea and vomiting.

as an aside, never go to bed with the “worst headache you’ve ever had” unless there’s someone to check on you every couple of hours. Going to the emergency room might be overkill but it’s a sign of a number of possible problems that are time sensitive if you get worse from there, having someone wake you up and ask you a few questions would “check you out” so you know nothing larger is wrong

@funkdaddy My partner sent me this and this. Makes sense. I drank a bunch of water, afterward, yet my sodium was low. Sounds counterproductive to being healthy, but I got a small fry from McDonald’s just now. Lots of salt.

Eat Bananas and avacados for extra potassium and yes, foolish woman, a 35 minute run for an out of condition person is not good, not good at all. If you’re over 40 you could even risk cardiac arrest. Start small, brisk walking for 15–20 minutes. You need to build up to the condition it takes to sustain a 35 minute run. Do you think they put out of condition horses on the track? lol

You left out some important factors such as the: temperature and humidity outside; your general health and age; what was your pace in minutes per mile (how far did you run?).
Assuming that the weather was mild then I think that you were likely dehydrated even before you started your run. If you didn’t drink any water before you ran then that is a big mistake especially so if it is warm outside. I’m 61 years old and jog 30 to 60 miles a week. I would never have a problem of dehydration on a short 35 minute run. I always slam down 2 large glasses of water before I jog.

Try to learn from this.

Drink more water and sports rehydration drinks (but not too much). Check you urine to make sure it is not too dark yellow (which is indicative of dehydration). You want to see a nice light clear yellow which is a crude indicator that you are well hydrated.